The technology disclosed herein generally relates to unmanned aerial vehicles. More particularly, the technology disclosed herein relates to systems and methods for assuring that autonomous operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle does not give rise to an unsafe condition.
An unmanned aerial vehicle is a powered, heavier-than-air, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, or pilot, and which uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or reusable, and can carry a lethal or a non-lethal payload.
An autonomous mission for an unmanned aerial vehicle may comprise, for example, a mission of navigating the unmanned aerial vehicle to search for possible targets of interest at a known distant position that is beyond the radio communication range of a control station. Such a mission may further include processing of reconnaissance imaging data to detect and identify a target of interest, and navigating closer to the target to achieve a mission objective of capturing images to ascertain the identity of the target, or tracking movement of the target to identify a direction or heading of the target. Exemplary missions may further include, upon acquiring a mission objective of identifying a target or a direction of movement of the target, for example, generating commands to navigate the unmanned aerial vehicle to a position in communication range of the control station to transmit target information to the control station, or to return to and land at the initial position of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
In addition to military applications, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in commercial applications is on the rise. With a growing presence of unmanned aerial vehicles in airspace around the world, it is likely that regulations will be imposed world-wide. The foremost requirement that may emerge is that operators of unmanned aerial vehicles in commercial airspace will be required to certify that their unmanned aerial vehicles will be constantly monitored for unsafe conditions or unsafe operation and can be switched to a safe mode when an unsafe condition or unsafe operation is detected.